Space crew return after launch scare
The first crew to blast off to the International Space Station following a launch accident last year has landed back on Earth.
The first crew to blast off to the International Space Station following a launch accident that deepened doubts over Russia’s space program landed back on Earth yesterday.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency emerged from the space craft to applause from support crews, after touching down near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.
Arriving in warm conditions, Mr Kononenko joked that he was “happy to see any kind of weather” after returning from space.
The trio’s launch on December 3 was the first after a Soyuz rocket carrying Russia’s Aleksey Ovchinin and American Nick Hague failed in October minutes after blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency landing. They escaped unharmed. It was the first such incident in Russia’s post-Soviet history and a setback for the country’s once proud space industry.
Lieutenant Colonel McClain, Mr Kononenko and Dr Saint-Jacques had been optimistic before their successful launch and remained upbeat throughout their time aboard the orbital lab that is seen as a rare example of co-operation between Russia and the West. “A beautiful night pass over Africa on my last night on @Space_Station,” tweeted 40-year-old Colonel McClain, a rugby union international who completed two spacewalks during her first mission to the ISS.
The returning trio were given a send-off on Monday as they left the ISS by Major Ovchinin, Colonel Hague and NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who arrived at the lab in March on a fresh mission.
Since 2011, Russia is the only country to have overseen manned launches to the ISS. NASA said this month it would open the ISS up to space tourists for the first time next year with 30-day visits expedited by SpaceX and Boeing expected to cost $US58 million ($83m) each.
AFP
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